From pantomime elf to captain of the Compass Rose, Jack Hawkins was one of those actors who looked to the stage first, and affected a benign bemusement at his own celluloid popularity. But a star he was, though a multifarious one, swapping from police superintendents to Egyption Pharaohs at the drop of a helmet. A stoic among stoics, his breakthrough picture The Cruel Sea came despite debilitating seasickness. Cancer robbed him of his voice at the end, so what later performances there were had to be dubbed by Charles Gray (‘Willard White speakin’!’)
FINEST HOUR: Let’s not try and be clever here. The major of that ‘rather rum group’ who set out to destroy The Bridge on the River Kwai is as fine an hour as ever was had.
